"We have been nice girls long enough. We’ve made our cholent…we should take to the streets." - Blu Greenberg

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Musings on the NOW Conference: Faith and Feminism - Can a Religious or Spiritual Woman be Feminist…and an Activist for Reproductive Rights?

This post is part of a series
discussing the 2012 National Organization for Women (NOW) Conference: Energize!
Organize! Stop the War on Women. You can read my notes on this session here.

The third breakout session I
attended at the NOW conference was titled Faith and Feminism - Can a Religious
or Spiritual Woman be Feminist…and an Activist for Reproductive Rights? It was
moderated by Allendra Letsome, NOW Membership Vice President. She spoke for
Protestants at large, but practices as a Methodist. Representing Catholicism
was Marissa Valeri, the Catholics for Choice Outreach Coordinator. Mona Lisa
Wallace, San Francisco
NOW President, is spiritual and “believe[s] in the Goddess as a pre-Abrahamic
religion.” Jacqueline Steingold, a National NOW Board Member, was the Jewish
emissary. She is specifically a member of the Reform movement. Jerin Arifa, a
NOW National Board Member and Chair of the NOW National and NYS Young Feminist
Task Forces, spoke for Islam. The atheist representative was Annie Laurie
Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

When I saw that there was a
session about the intersection of religion and women’s rights, I was really
excited. I hadn’t expected there to be a space for religious feminists at the
conference, so it was a cool surprise that such a session was being offered. It
was the last session before Shabbat (Sabbath) began, so I felt it was a
relevant topic to hear about.

I really appreciated that there
was a representative from every major religion. It was nice to hear about all these different faiths, which I am largely ignorant of, and how they can be very much feminist.

I learned a lot in this
session, especially about Catholicism and feminism. The Catholic emissary,
Valeri, explained how a lot of what is accepted as Catholic teaching,
especially about reproductive issues, is not as simple as it seems. I had
never known any of that. There’s a car that I often see parked in my neighborhood with a
bumper sticker that says “Catholics and choice: you can’t be both.” I’m happy
to know that the owner of this SUV isn’t as correct as he or she thinks. (While
I’m discussing this bumper sticker, I’m complaining about it from a design
standpoint. It says “Catholics and Choice” in really big letters, and the “u
can’t b both” in small letters. As a result, from far away, it looks
pro-choice. As a graphic design geek, this bothers me to no end.)

I also learned a lot about
Islamophobia. Arifa, the Muslim representative, spoke about her experiences
with Islamophobia within feminist spaces, which really made me sad. I had
always thought that it’s accepted within liberal spaces that terrorism does not define
Islam. It shocks me that women who call themselves feminists can act so
blatantly discriminatory towards Muslims. How can someone who is dedicated to
empowering women discriminate against a portion of the global community, which
obviously contains women? Islamophobia is a step away from anti-Semitism and
every other ism out there. It’s imperative that we fight every ism with the
same intensity, since they all lead to the same end.

I think that everybody in attendance, regardless of
religious affiliation, couldn’t stand the atheist representative, Gaylor. This
was not because of her beliefs, but because she was extremely militant about
them and alienated the religious people in the room. When she said “The Bible…[is]
very misogynist,” steam was coming out of my ears. How dare she call my holy
book sexist? What right does she have to say that the Bible is anti-woman? As
someone who believes the Tanakh (Jewish Bible) is God’s word as recorded by
Moses, I feel that it is impossible for it to be discriminatory towards women;
God loves all people, regardless of sex or gender, so God would not give us
rules that are unfair to women. While it may seem misogynist on the surface, or
may be twisted to seem sexist, at its core the Tanakh is a feminist chronicle.
And for an atheist to tell me that my holy book is misogynist? That does not
fly AT ALL. Who the heck does Gaylor think she is to tell me the Bible is sexist?
Just because she doesn’t believe in its validity doesn’t mean she has any right
to criticize it and judge it.

One thing that really surprised
me about this session was how many women felt uncomfortable being religious
within feminist spaces. Several women in the audience talked about when they
came out as religious to their feminist friends, and a couple of the panelists
expressed empathy, having gone through the same thing. The idea that so many
women are struggling with reconciling their religion with their feminism is so
foreign to me. While it took me a while to realize that Judaism and feminism
totally mesh, it did happen within a relatively short amount of time. I’m
really glad that it did, and it’s not something I struggle with.

When I first created Star of
Davida and corresponded with some of the major Jewish feminist bloggers, Shira
Salamone of On the Fringe advised me not to throw out the baby with the
bathwater when it comes to Jewish feminism. I thought it was interesting the
same concept was shared by Wallace, who identifies as spiritual. I guess it
applies to every religious affiliation. That’s, in essence, what I took away
from this session: we’re all working towards the same goals, regardless of
if/where we pray.

3 comments:

I'm a Mennonite feminist, and for me, my religion isn't only compatible with feminism, it's a large part of the reason that I'm a feminist. It makes me really sad that a lot of feminists aren't religious and that a lot of religious people don't understand that God loves everyone. It's always nice to hear from religious feminists, from whatever background.

About Me

Prayer for Agunot

Creator of heaven and earth, may it be Your will to free the captive wives of Israel when love and sanctity have fled the home, but their husbands bind them in the tatters of their ketubot. Remove the bitter burden from these agunot and soften the hearts of their misguided captors. Liberate Your faithful daughters from their anguish. Enable them to establish new homes and raise up children in peace.

Grant wisdom to the judges of Israel; teach them to recognize oppression and rule against it. Infuse our rabbis with the courage to use their power for good alone.